11 July 2017 - Tuesday of the 14th week in Ordinary Time - St Benedict (489 - 547) - Matthew 9:32-38

      Jesus looks out at the crowds and sees something very curious in our Gospel reading today.  Even though he tries to take of their needs, even though he proclaims God’s kingdom and performs miracles and heals the sick, he realizes that the people are missing something.  They are acting like sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus has compassion for them in the midst of their reality.  

      St Benedict is the saint we celebrate today.  Like Jesus, he looked out at the reality around him and was concerned at what he saw.  Benedict was a young man who came from a wealthy family in Italy; he went to Rome to study and to make his way in life.  Even though Rome was the center of Christianity, beyond the surface Benedict saw the city’s sinful and chaotic nature. The Early Church that was persecuted and struggling had become a Church of the empire.  By the sixth century, many Christians were yearning for the Church’s humble roots, trying to recapture something that was lost from the Early Church. 

     So, Benedict left Rome and became a hermit.  However, his first experiment in attempting to found a monastery was a failure; that first group of monks were upset at Benedict’s high standards.  They even tried to poison him.  He went on to found 12 different monastic communities that not only survived, but flourished, before founding in 529 what would become the famous monastery of Monte Casino, seen as the shining light of the monastic movement in Europe.  The rule of Benedict that he developed became the paradigm for monasticism: living in community, sharing work responsibilities together, studying the faith, and praying together.  Even though Benedict had such high standards, he was always gentle, peaceable, and compassionate.  The monastic movement that Benedict established had a big influence in helping Europe survive through its darkest days in the Middle Ages.  Benedict always encouraged his community to strive toward perfection and the ideals of God’s kingdom, as he once said: “Whatever good work you begin to do, beg of God with most earnest prayer to perfect it.”  On your feast day, St Benedict, we honor the way God called you to lead people to a holy life of prayer, work, and study. May those ideals help us to live a life of holiness, too.